NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 17: Madonna is seen on location for "W.E" on the streets of Manhattan on September 17, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Marcel Thomas/FilmMagic)

The Daily Mail reports that a new study commissioned by the London Vision Clinic says wearing specs could make you look an average of three years older than your true age--and people over 45 can look as much as five years older than their true age! "The research was conducted by dividing the participants into two groups," the article says. "The first group was given ten pictures of people with glasses and asked to guess their ages and discuss their personal attributes. The second group was given ten pictures of the same people without glasses and asked the same questions. The results showed a difference in perceived ages but also found that those who wore glasses were a fifth less likely to be seen as confident and were more likely to be thought of as physically weaker."

Kind of reminds you of the elementary school playground, huh? Even though the fashion world has decided that glasses are completely geek chic, it seems like the rest of the world still has to catch up. I wore glasses until the seventh grade, when I got contact lenses and then spent the next 10 years of my life doing anything and everything I could to avoid letting people see me in my glasses. Now I've got some totally chic Ralph Lauren tortoise frames (from the little boys' section, since I've got an unfortunately teeny face!), and I think they make me look sophisticated and completely cool and I wear them out every now and again, but I hadn't really considered the fact that they might make me look older.

What do you ladies think? Do glasses actually age us, or is it just society's long-held perception about people who wear them? Of you ladies who wear glasses, do you find that people think you're older when you're wearing them than when you're not? Do any of you have faux glasses (ie, non-prescription) just because you like the way they make you look? Do you feel more sophisticated when you wear them? Share!